Dear friends,

The next letter that you will receive from me will be BE”H after Rosh Hashanah. I wrote the letter last night, on the 25th day of Elul, the day the world actually came into being. No holiday is observed on the anniversary of literally the most transformative moment in the world’s history-its coming into being! Why doesn’t the Torah not have a World Day?

Step back and focus on any physical object, such as a plastic cup. You will notice that it is made of a specific material (plastic), has a shape, (hollow cylinder) and finally it has a purpose (containing liquid). The entire universe works with the same three components, material, form, and purpose, that the cup has. In the first moment of creation, the root of everything in the physical world was brought into being. The form that they eventually take was generated by Hashem’s will in each day of creation. That only leaves one more component.

Purpose.

Us. You and me. All humans are the offspring of Adam and Chava whose creation took place on Rosh Hashanah.

Humans are the end goal of a world we have yet to fully explore or understand. We live in a world in which there is concealment – struggle, mortality, and the deadening repetition of nature that makes searching for its source feel optional. This all began on the first day of creation, the 25th of Elul. The next day, the spiritual source of life, which is called the Higher Waters, meaning the way Hashem’s compassion nurtures all reality, was separated from the ordinary H2O that you drink. The empty space between them, the place where you can choose to be awake, and open your heart to emunah, or you can be so absorbed by the gorgeous, lush place we call earth that you don’t have room for its Creator. The next day, vegetation, and after that the cosmos with its vast mysterious presence.

This summer we spent a few days in Rosh Pinah, a charming small town just north of Tzfat. My husband’s friend has a serious telescope, the kind that fills half a room. He let us look at the black night through its lenses. Words like “a hundred light years” passed between him and us. All of it was put into place on the fourth day. On the fifth day, lower species of animals and finally the higher species all were created for you. And me. And the rest of us.

This is why (as the Talmud tells you) that instinctively each of us thinks that the world is here for none other than yours truly and her friends, you.  If you are really alive and awake, you will sense Hashem’s presence wherever you are. If you are asleep, there is only room for you. It’s not hard to sleep through life.
 
The shofar is there to wake you up.

The Torah’s text doesn’t give you much information about how this works. Rabbenu Bachaya tells us that the fewer words the text provides, the more deeply the profundity of the mitzvah is hidden.

He quotes the text phrase by phrase
1-On the first of the month, there shall be a Shabbaton, a time where things cease.
2-A commemoration of the truah (sound of the shofar)
3-It shall be a time that calls out sanctity to you
MEANING
1-The words, “the first” hint at Avraham who was the first one to be fully awake to Hashem’s unity and presence in His world
2 Remembering the truah is Yitzchak, - a ram was sacrificed in his place, and the shofar is made of a ram’s horn, which produces the sound that you hear to awaken you.
3-Calling out sanctity, is Yaakov,

BEING AWAKE BEGINS BY FEELING THE PART OF YOU THAT STILL HAS A SPARK OF THEM – PEOPLE WHO DID NOT SLEEP THROUGH LIFE. HEAR THE SHOFAR AS YITZCHAK’S VOICE, HIS SPIRITUAL ALARM CLOCK RINGING IN YOUR SOUL.

Yitzchak was utterly devoted to Hashem, was strong enough to have no “self” or autonomy holding him back. He was 37 years old at the time Avraham took him to Mount Moriah. He could have easily just told his father that he has no plans to be an offering to Hashem and walked away. His didn’t-he wanted to serve

Hashem on His terms.

Are you like him? If the answer is one, you prefer to keep to yourself, then go back to step one. Find the part of you that is like Avraham. Let your willingness to see Him in His world and through His creation inspire you. Skip to step three. Yaakov’s holiness, his ability to find Hashem in each situation he faced in life, in the individual nature of all 12 of his sons, and in the world itself is also part of you. They surround the Yitzchak in you. What does this mean?

​What Rabbenu Bachaya tells you, is that the part of you that really isn’t actualized yet, the imperfect not-yet Yitzchak part, that could be the source of feeling endlessly guilty, doesn’t stand-alone. Hashem never forgets Yitzchak’s devotion, but when he looks at you or at me, he simultaneously remembers the merit of seeking for Him when you are coming from a distant place, the way Avraham did, and the fact that He promised Yaakov that something of him would be in his descendants. This is why the shofar is blown as Zichron truah, memory and sound.

What should the voice of the shofar tell you as you hear it? You hear the voice of awe, and even fear, and at the same time the voice of joy in Hashem’s love. The first comes through the broken notes that are called truah. The second from the smooth unbroken sound called tekia.

Both sounds are sounds of life, sounds that can wake you up to a life of brachah, goodness and Shanah Tovah

Love,
Tziporah
 

Dear friends,

It’s been a very very long time since we were in touch. My website gave me some grief (to tell you the truth, my relationship to anything technical isn’t an easy one) but two good friends who are a half a century younger than I am, put it together.

This happened just in time to think about the New Year. Rosh Hashanah is the day that Hashem created Adam, not the day He began the process of creating a world. We humans are so much more alive than anything else in creation is if you measure life in terms of change and ability. The body He gave you   gives you access to other people and to the world. At the same time, the body the self that individuates you and separates you from everyone else. It feels like the real you. It isn’t. It was created to listen to your soul. Without a soul, your body is like a plane without a pilot.

Your body is the temporary, every changing part of you that gives the eternal unchanging soul a means of connecting to Hashem through interacting with other people and with the world. Your body as a great deal in common with everyone else’s body but at the same time is unique. The soul arguably has far more in common with everyone else’s soul, but is nonetheless yours. You have things to do that no one else can do. The way your body and soul interact determines who you really become and who you are today. You give birth to yourself every day when you make subtle changes in the way your body and soul interact. You stem from the first Adam. Rosh Hashanah is the day of your original becoming, your birth in the ultimate sense.

NOW THE STORY - THE GOOD PART

Quite a number of years ago I was standing in the Neve lobby looking at the bulletin board. Rabbi Chalkowski asked me, “What building do you live in, Mrs. Heller?” I told him, “29”. “Turn around” he told me. At that time, Har Nof was not quite finished. The odd number buildings on HaKablan were for the most part already occupied. The even side was partially built. I could see my house through the glass doors that lead to the Neve gardens. I also saw what appeared to be the leaning tower of Pisa relocated to Har Nof.

 The building next to mine was almost completed. The seventh floor roof was under construction, and the wall on its western side was taking the full force of a heavy gale of wind. It slowly moved. The police came, the contractor came, and authorities from the city administration came. The engineering department determined that it was safest to clear the area and to bring down the entire building. It took the entire afternoon. You can imagine what the people who had invested everything they have in buying an apartment must have been feeling. So could Yudka Paley.

He was the contractor.

He spoke on the radio. I will never forget his words. He addressed the tenants. “You may think that I will be sitting at home in comfort while you are left homeless. I will not rest until each of you is settled. The building will be rebuilt according to the highest standards, and I will pay your rent until it is ready to be occupied”.

Rent in Yerushalaim for tens of families. Every month.

It was like hearing someone read his own death sentence.

He kept his word. I recently heard another chapter of this remarkable story.
 The reason that the building collapsed was that there wasn’t sufficient steel in the foundation. The engineer/architect who designed the building had made a grievous mistake (which, had the building been occupied could have killed people). The amount of steel that would have worked in his native Russia, where the soil is denser didn’t hold in Israel. He lost his license immediately but (as far as I know) did not have to face criminal procedures.
Yudka Paley came to see him.

 If you were he, what would you expect to hear from a man whose reputation and financial future were ruined? Because of you. And no one else.

Paley turned to him and said, “You are a new immigrant. I know you lost your license. Here are a few thousand to tide you over until you find a job”

GIVING BIRTH TO YOURSELF

Yudka Paley didn’t know that this was what he would face when he stood in the synagogue on previous year’s Rosh Hashanah. The challenges to his integrity and compassion were unimaginable in those moments.

 From where he is today, no longer among us here in this world, these were no doubt some of the most dazzling moments of his entire life. He could have made other choices. Declaring bankruptcy. Leaving the country. Seining that the engineer/architect would never have a good day the rest of his life. The menu had endless selections. So does yours.

So does your friend’s.

The Parshah tells you that if you see your enemy’s donkey trembling under its burden, help him unload it. Everyone has burdens. The Hebrew word for donkey is chamor, which has the same root as the word chomer, meaning material. When you see that your friend’s challenges overwhelm him, it’s the chomer that is overwhelmed. The soul can see beyond the moment. Help him find himself.

Be your own friend.
 
SHADES OF GREY

When the choices are black and white, it is easier to decide if you are on the bus or off the bus. When the choices are subtle, it is harder. There is more room for justification, for fear of failure, of rationalizing and for seeing yourself more clearly than you see anyone else.

I am not sure that Yudka Paley had to pay everyone’s rent- I know with absolute certainty that he did not have to give money to the man who could have destroyed him through ignorance at best and negligence at worst. There is something else I also know.

I wish that I was like him. I am still in process and so are you.

There is a custom to hear the shofar in Elul. It’s meant to wake you up. The Sephardi communities have already began reciting selichot, the prayers for Tshuvah. You might think that the melodies would be grim. They aren’t. They range from mellow to joyous. The reason is that they are working on the premise that they are not alone. The One who gives you the challenges is there to help you overcome them. You are not worse than “the enemy’s donkey”.

​Have a great rest of Elul.

Love,
Tziporah